Palm Beach County home sales spike in March with fewer sellers getting full asking price

Palm Beach County single-family home sales saw a hefty rebound in March with the highest volume of closings since the peak of pandemic pricing in the spring and summer of 2022.

Last month, 1,465 existing homes traded hands, an increase of 33% from February and the most since May of last year, according to a report from the Broward, Palm Beach and St. Lucie Realtors Group. It was the first time since November that completed deals topped 1,000.

“We had a fantastic March and April in terms of volume and transaction,” said Jeff Lichtenstein, president of the Palm Beach Gardens-based Echo Fine Properties. “There’s been a lot of pent-up demand, where people have been holding off, and we are getting back into some normalcy.”

Although sales were up from previous months, they dipped 8% compared with March of 2022.

Still, the median price for a single-family home in March was $575,000, up 6.3% from the previous year but down from a pandemic-buoyed high of $620,000 in June.

The average sale price, which is considered more easily skewed by very high or very low sales, was $903,891 in March. That’s down nearly 7% from March 2022.

Lichtenstein credited part of the sales volume increase to a combination of buyers growing more accustomed to the idea of 6%-plus interest rates and higher inflation. But March is also traditionally a busy month as snowbird shoppers go under contract in February following the holidays.

Echo Fine Properties realtor Jeff Lichtenstein shows a home for sale to Ann and Frank Grenci in Bay Hill Estates in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida 

GREG LOVETT/THE PALM BEACH POST

“We are at the end of the season right now and we have a lot of shotgun buyers,” Lichtenstein said. “Maybe they haven’t been able to find what they are looking for and then something comes up and they’ll buy it over the phone.”

Pending sales, which are an indication of future closings, totaled 1,584 in March. That’s down 11% from the previous year but the highest since April 2022.

At the same time, the number of existing Palm Beach County single-family homes for sale in March remained stagnant at 3.2 months. That’s 167% higher than the 1.2 months’ last year but far from a traditionally balanced market. A balanced market where neither the buyer or seller has the upper hand is considered as having about 5.5 months’ supply of inventory.

Jim Bertles, principal and managing director of wealth management and investment firm AlTi, said he doesn’t expect the demand for homes to lessen in coastal areas of Palm Beach County as people continue to move to Florida for retirement, its tax benefits and its warm weather.

There may be some softening, however, in western and central areas of the county farther from more bustling metro areas, said Bertles, noting how bullish the Related Cos. are in building office space in West Palm Beach and golf course communities in Martin County.

“The homes closer to the ocean, I don’t see the activity stopping,” said Bertles, who lives in Palm Beach. “I wish we had known what would happen after the pandemic. We had no idea the (real estate) activity would be so significant.”

The latest driver’s license data from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Jan. 1 through mid-April supports the continued influx of residents to the Sunshine State.

New York remained the state with the highest number of people turning in Empire State driver’s licenses for those from Florida with 17,881. New Jersey was second with 8,503, followed by California (7,956), Pennsylvania (7,181) and Georgia (6,940.) Illinois also ranked high with 6,586 residents handing in their driver’s licenses for those with a Florida address.

“I wish we all had a crystal ball, but I just don’t see the growth stopping,” Bertles said.

Closed sales of Palm Beach County condominiums and townhomes mirrored those of single-family homes in March with a 63% increase from February to 1,335. Despite the monthly hike, March sales were down 21% from the previous year.

The median sale price for a condominium and townhome in March was $312,000, up 6% from March 2022.

Kimberly Miller is a veteran journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate and how growth affects South Florida’s environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate roundup. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. Help support our local journalism, subscribe today.